PATIENTS could have to pay up to &#xA3;100 for a taxi to take them to a North Wales casualty unit late at night.

The fear follows a controversial decision by GPs to stop working out-of-hours at a community hospital.

The warning came as Anglesey health chiefs faced a series of stinging attacks during a packed public meeting at Holyhead's Ucheldre centre yesterday.

From next week the town's 11 doctors, spread between three practices, will pull the plug on the out-of-hours service at Holyhead's Penrhos Stanley Hospital.

They will join colleagues who staff a night-time rota system at the Meddygion Menai Doctors (MMD) Unit 25 miles away at Ysbyty Gwyn-edd, Bangor.

The "co-operative" already serves the rest of Anglesey and most of north Gwynedd.

But at yesterday's stormy meeting former Holyhead mayor Jeff Evans warned families on low incomes, including many without their own cars, wouldn't be able to afford to travel late at night to see a doctor in Bangor.

"I have checked, and a one way taxi fare from Holyhead to Bangor could cost &#xA3;50, and if the driver has to wait at Ysbyty Gwynedd, we are looking at &#xA3;100 for the round trip. How can people afford that?"

Representatives from the Anglesey Local Health Board and the North West Wales NHS Trust faced a barrage of criticism from worried residents.

They fear the shake-up at Penrhos Stanley, including axing the way the hospital's minor injuries unit is staffed, could lead to greater pressure on the already stretched ambulance service.

As she left the meeting Jane Jones, a 73 year-old disabled pensioner, told the Daily Post: "I think it is absolutely awful.

"I am lucky, I have a car but what about those who haven' t? What are they expected to do?"

But Dr Will Roberts, local health board chairman, said the Holyhead doctors worked 551 hours a year "on call" which was the equivalent of three weeks, while GPs at MMD unit currently work 91 hours.

"We can't force doctors to stay in Holyhead, it is a free market. And the situation is the doctors here just aren't prepared to work the kind of hours they have been working."